Update & Share: 9/24/24

To view Farmer John’s latest update, click here.

This week’s share will include:

  • Veggies: swiss chard, beans, radishes, garlic, beets with tops, zucchini, broccoli or cauliflower, bok choy, peppers or eggplant, white acorn squash and choice of an herb.
  • Add-on shares:
    • Fruit: starkrimson pears & hardy kiwi berries
    • Flowers: TBD
    • Mushrooms: expected every week unless we hear otherwise
    • Eggs: expected every week unless we hear otherwise
  • For those with half shares, this is “B” week.

Serving Suggestions:

  • One crop that typically returns in volume once the warmest weather passes is garlic. For the first time in forever I recently roasted a bulb and was happy I did. I didn’t have a use for it immediately in mind so I saved it in the fridge. A few days later I was doing a clean-out-the-fridge stir fry and decided to throw it in. It added a nice touch that I may not have noticed without having cooked the dish myself but knowing it was there I could find the flavor. I decided to click around to a few food blogs for other ideas to add roasted garlic to, some are obvious while some are inspiring:
    • Pizza (I’d probably mix in the sauce so it’s protected a bit by the cheese)
    • Mayo (quick aioli)
    • Homemade salad dressing (shake up some oil, balsamic, Dijon, roasted garlic, s&p)
    • Hamburgers/Meatloaf/Meatballs
    • Cream cheese (for a deeply flavorful bagel schmear)
    • Softened butter (either use right away or put back in the fridge rolled in parchment for a sliceable compound butter)
    • Potato salad (a very easy way to spruce up a store bought tub)

John also shared information about the Hardy Kiwi:

Hardy Kiwi (actinidia arguta) also known as Siberian Kiwi is a
native of Northern China, Korea and Russian Siberia. It is similar
inside to the fuzzy tropical kiwi, but has smaller seeds and a smooth
green skin with only a bit of vestigial fuzz on the blossom end.
It is super nutritious being 5 times higher in vitamin C than oranges
and with twice the vitamin E of avocados. It is also rich in potassium,
B-6 and B-2. The fruit we have comes from Dave Jackson of Kiwi
Korners, Aka, Kiwi Organics in North central PA. A retired Rock
drummer, Dave has been working with Kiwi for over 30 years and
developed his own varieties. The fruit is eaten like a grape with the
skin. You may pull out the previously noted bit of fuzz before popping
them into your mouth. You will receive them in a fairly hard unripe
state and will need to keep them out on the counter to ripen for a day
or two. They are best and sweetest when they are very soft and the
skin begins to darken and get a little wrinkly. In the refrigerator
they will continue to ripen but very slowly. You may want to leave
some out and keep some in the fridge, and you should return ripe ones
to cooler if you are not ready to eat them right away. They are quite
delicious but avoid the temptation to eat too many at once as they
are also quite acidic.

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